Plans to shut one of Gwynedd’s recycling centres in a bid to save almost £100,000 have been shelved by the local authority.

As part of the authority’s “Gwynedd Challenge” plan to identify £5m worth of savings, one of the options considered was shutting one of the centres which was estimated would save around £96,000 a year.

But a report to be presented to the authority’s cabinet on Tuesday notes that this proposal has now been dropped due to their “popularity with the general public.”

The sites accept a wide range of domestic household waste for recycling, although trade waste must still be disposed of using a licensed facility.

Recycling centres in Gwynedd are to remain open (Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

The new report, authored by cabinet member Cllr Gareth Griffith, notes: “The Gwynedd Challenge exercise had concluded that we should close one centre to achieve a £96,000 saving.

“However, these resources are popular among the public and the Department considers that it has proposals that would be less contentious than realising this plan.

“The preparatory work for the 2019/20 savings and onward has also revealed that potential plans by other departments that would also have been less challenging if we could have included them in the Gwynedd Challenge review are now becoming apparent.

“Therefore, I recommend that the Cabinet authorise the deferral of the implementation of this savings scheme and deal with the deficit created when considering 2019/20 savings and onward.”

Meanwhile, the report also confirms that Gwynedd council could use some of its own staff to issue fixed penalty notices for littering in problem areas after a trial with the controversial private firm collapsed after less than a week.

In March, Kingdom Security decided to end the planned 12 month agreement with Gwynedd council after just two days of patrolling the county’s streets, blaming “operational issues.”

The report notes: “We are now seeking to begin another pilot, using available internal resources in order to target areas where there are ongoing problems. I will update you on this once this pilot scheme is in place.”

The full report will be discussed in detail when Gwynedd’s Cabinet meets in Caernarfon on Tuesday.